Altered Books: Little Bottles & Paper Flowers

January 23, 2010

Last Saturday I was playing around with coriander seeds Boris had brought home from his food shopping trip. There were a few scattered on the kitchen table and I started to wonder what they’d look like in the tiny bottles I’ve had waiting in the wings for their own altered book to call home. I loved how they looked in the bottle so I went searching through more things for different items to try. The photo above shows what I came up with: coriander seeds, feathers (thanks Jess), dried rosemary, and salt. As I’ve mentioned before, playing with materials is the best way I’ve found to come up with ideas for my altered book art. It moves me from abstract thinking about objects and the vague ideas I have, to playing with them and clarifying what works and what does not. Now I know I do want the bottles to contain things, and it makes me realize they’ll need to be sealed. I have an idea about that too which I need to explore.

The paper flowers in these two photos are from the altered book I just finished this week. The flowers were created using a flower-shaped paper punch on the book pages. It was an experiment because I wanted to see what the book would look like with pieces of the pages removed, but it wasn’t a very effective technique this attempt. It did leave me with piles of flowers and I decided to string these together and make them part of the composition in the book.

More on the finished book later this week. I haven’t yet had a chance to photograph it.

The Return of Hot One Inch Action

January 20, 2010

Remember back in November when I wrote about attending the Hot One Inch Action show? I’d submit work to it but wasn’t accepted. Well good news! The organizers of the event, Chris Bentzen and Jim Hoehnle, have decided to do a medalist round selecting work from designs that didn’t make it into previous shows, and mine was chosen. Dude, I am so excited!!!!

From their website:

Ever wonder what doesn’t make it into the show? We have a difficult time choosing buttons to be in Hot One Inch Action and with 100-150 submissions each year, there’s a lot of great art that doesn’t make the cut. So, to kick off 2010, we’ve chosen 50 buttons not in the 2004-2009 shows to be MEDALISTS. Bags of 5 random buttons will be available for $5. Get a button you don’t want? Trade with the people around you!

The exhibit is one night only and will take place on Saturday February 6, 2010, with doors open at 8pm. Boris and I will be there, and I’ll have a bag of buttons featuring my design to give away and trade. I can’t wait.

Hot One Inch Action Medalists
W2 Culture + Media House – 112 W Hastings Vancouver
Saturday February 6, 2010
doors open at 8pm

A Little Bit of News

January 19, 2010

The Utatan was the annual big group project organized by the Utata Group on Flickr in the summer of 2007. It was the most ambitious project the group had organized to date and the end goal was to produce a print version collecting a selection of the submissions. Two of my photos were selected for publication a few months after the web version went live and then I waited to hear when the book would be published. And I waited, and waited, and then waited some more, and then I forgot about it completely.

And yet two years later I finally have a printed copy of the Utatan in my hot little hand because (to quote the dust jacket) “it was the project that would not die.” Utata is a volunteer run group and the ebb and flow of the lives of the people involved were what dictated the timeline for the project. I’m just glad the book is done now, and I don’t really care how long it took. I get the impression producing a book is like that anyhow.

It’s very exciting to be part of this publication because Utata has been one of my favorite flickr groups over the years. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy yourself the book is available through Blurb.com.

Wandering Through the Blue Sky Night

January 9, 20101 Comment

I love how this portrait of Julie came out in a wonderfully magical way that didn’t occur to me when I took the photo. As I was processing the shot I started imagining stars in the background and the blue backdrop became a midnight blue sky. Boris came up with the title after finding the lyrics from a song by Melissa Ferrick.

It’s been a month since I shot this portrait for the series. I decided I would only do one in December because it seemed like it would just be too crazy a time to try to scheduling people shortly before Christmas. But a whole month break from this project feels too long. In the meantime, even though I haven’t been shooting I’ve been working on ideas and figuring out who to photograph next. I can’t wait to get started again.

Good Things from 2009

January 6, 20101 Comment

It’s easy to focus on the negative and decide a whole year was bad, and this seems to be the general attitude about poor old 2009. It was a year that was on the rough side, but it was also one that had many wonderful things. Boris and I felt it was one of those in-between times that builds a foundation for other years.

I decided to do a list of good things and see how many items I could come up with. Here goes in no particular order, good things from 2009:

1. Discovering the art of altering old books and taking a huge step forward with my collage work.

2. Concluding the 52 weeks self portrait series that I started in 2008.

3. Moving out of my cold and dark apartment in Kits and moving in with Boris.
4. Bringing a regular yoga practice back into my life thanks to the forty day yoga challenge.
5. Going on walks with Anne on Bowen, and getting to see new trails I hadn’t walked before.

6. Canoeing and a picnic in Widgeon Creek.

7. Going to Jericho park and throwing the frisbee around with Boris.
8. Working on a portrait series inspired by my self portraits.

9. Swimming in the Pacific Ocean for the first time ever.
10. Writing regularly in my paper-based journal.
11. Learning how to make mozzarella cheese.
12. Attending Artfest in Port Townsend.

11. Eating Dungeness Crab caught by James.
12. Riding Anne’s scooter around the North Shore with Boris on my birthday.

13. Visiting the Bug Museum in Victoria.
14. Snowshoeing on Cypress with the Mann Family.

15. Cycling around the city to see the cherry blossoms.

16. Rescuing a baby crow from the streets of Gastown and putting it into Kirsti’s care.

17. A surprise visit from my friend Tonia.
18. Heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market.

19. A July weekend on Saltspring Island with friends.

20. Hanging out with Kathy in Vancouver, and sharing Bowen Island with her at last.
21. Turning some of my collages into postcards.

22. Acquiring two cute little goldfish.

23. The return of Ruby Dog’s Arthouse in a new location.
24. Spending quality time with Kai during her brief visit to Vancouver.
25. Eating many delicious meals made with delicious deliciousness.

(I started this thinking I wouldn’t be able to come up with much, and I’ve surprised myself by realizing I can think of more.)

I have a new baby…

December 29, 2009

…the Lensbaby composer. It was a very generous Christmas present from my mom. I took it out for a test run when I went walking in the forest on Bowen both Christmas and Boxing day. I’m fascinated with the design of the lens, not just for it’s tilt/shift abilities, but because of the interchangeable f-stop rings that are slipped in and out of the lens using a magnet.

As you can see, I’ve mostly used the lens for nature shots so far. I want to do a series of test shots trying out each f-stop ring on the same subject for comparison, and I also want to try this lens with portraits. Part of me feels the lens is a bit too gimmicky, but the creative part of me will probably prove that wrong.

Creative Excellence Takes Time

December 23, 2009

The wise words of Ira Glass on why creative excellence takes time. I found listening to this very gratifying, especially the part about self-directed projects and deadlines to work towards, because it’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years with fruitful results. I’m producing the best work of my life (so far) and I’m working hard at it. I am occasionally tough on myself because I feel like it’s taken me a forever to get to where I currently am as an artist. But there would’ve been no other way to get here because all good things take time and hard work. (And hard work takes time too.)

Altered book: Swimming in a Sea of Words

December 22, 2009

As mentioned in a previous blog post, rummaging through my art supplies inspired me to create an altered book with fish. It may just be that I have fish on the brain lately, but rummaging through my supplies reminded me of the gold paper fish I’d bought from Urban Source over the summer. It was high time to use them. I added the red colour to each fish using ink because I didn’t like the plain gold, and now they unintentionally resemble salmon.

I wanted to create a sense of water moving, of waves crashing with the pages, so I began to play around with folding the pages under one another. At first I was only going to do part of the book, but then the more I did, the more it made sense to fold every single page. The Japanese paper I used on the end pages reminds me of the pattern created when raindrops splash into the still water of a pond or lake. The finishing touch of the book was to add the red and white flowers, which were created using a paper punch.

Materials used: Japanese paper, book, flowers made with a paper punch, rubber stamps, ink, and metallic paper fish.

Underneath an Imaginary Sea

December 17, 2009

When I came up with the idea to do a portrait with goldfish swimming around my friend Kay, I realized the only way I could pull it off was to get real fish. I needed to be able to photograph them under the same lighting conditions I would be shooting Kay in order to make the fish shots and person shot match. So I went out and bought a pair of goldfish with the long term plan they’d be a permanent fixture in my home. Luckily Boris was okay with the acquisition of more pets and took it upon himself to name the orange fish “Buri“, while I named the speckled brown fish “Astrid“. (Not that either of them get called anything other than fish or fishes most of the time…)

The above image is the result of many hours of work in photoshop, cutting out multiple shots of individual fish to bring together and playing around with colour. I asked Kay during the shoot to pretend the fish were swimming around her and this was one of the expressions she came up with. It was very cute and perfectly suited to holding her breath under an imaginary sea.

This shot of Kay with the goldfish and bowl was early on in the shoot as we were just getting warmed up. It’s cute but I definitely don’t love it as much as the top shot.

Kay and Betsey Johnson

December 16, 2009

When Kay came over to be photographed for the series a few weeks ago she brought a selection of Betsey Johnson dresses and crinolines with her to wear. They were all pretty specular but I loved this one the best because of the bright mix of colours. I usually ask my portrait subjects to bring a few different items to choose from and wear during the shoot. Part of the fun of inviting women friends over for these photo shoots has been getting to see their clothes.

The funny thing about the shoot with Kay, that I didn’t really think about beforehand, was that it didn’t really matter what she was wearing. I was shooting with a specific idea in mind and her clothing was mostly hidden from view. Towards the end of the shoot I decided the fantastic outfit just couldn’t go to waste and did these shots with Kay seated on the floor to showcase the dress. I love how this gave me the opportunity to try a different perspective from my usual style of portraiture.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life